The Health Minister has apologised to patients who were pictured sleeping on the floor in A&E at Pinderfields.

Batley and Spen MP, Mrs Brabin, who released the pictures last week, spoke at the ‘NHS Winter Crisis’ debate in parliament yesterday.

She demanded an apology from Health Minister Philip Dunne, saying: “These were poorly people left in chairs waiting for hours, not being given a bed or a trolley.“

Mr Dunne said: “I would like to apologise to those patients who were not treated as quickly as we would like them to have been.

“There are seats available in most hospitals where beds are not available.

Patients reportedly having to sleep on the floor at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield. The photos were sent to the Huddersfield Examiner by Batley and Spen MP Tracy Brabin

“I cannot comment on what happened in her individual case, but I agree with her that it is not acceptable.”

The woman who took the pictures said she did so because she was “absolutely shocked” at the scene before her.

The 57-year-old, from Heckmondwike , rejected a health chief’s explanation that chairs were available for the people concerned.

Last week she told the Examiner: "You can understand people being tired and lying on the floor but it was not really like that,” she explained.

“People are waiting hours and hours and hours and have to sit on hard metal chairs.

“After you have spent so many hours sitting in a chair when you are poorly you will get into any position you can to be comfortable.”

The pictures were taken in the early hours of January 2 in the cubicle area of Pinderfields’ Accident & Emergency department. One shows a man, attached to a drip, bedded down with his head resting on his rolled-up coat.

The other features a man in a hospital gown lying in a corridor. A wheeled chair is beside him.

The woman, who has asked not to be named, added: “This state of affairs at Pinderfields is not just in A&E and not just at Christmas. It’s happening on a regular basis.

“People were sitting around in chairs, shivering. In 2018 people should not be having to sleep on the floor without either a pillow or a blanket. If you were in prison you would be offered a pillow and a blanket – and a bed."

David Melia, Director of Nursing and Quality at the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Pinderfields, said the Trust had received no complaints regarding the care of the two patients identified in the photographs, “who may have chosen to lie down as seats were provided.”